Stereo Sound on 5.1 Speaker Setup (1 Viewer)

[Snoopy87]

Hi,

I have a Yamaha RX-V681 with 5.1 speakers (Teufel LT2 MK2 5.1). Latest MediaPortal, latest LAV Filter, latest nVidia drivers (GTX 1050 TI). Audio/Video over HDMI.

If I configure 5.1 on Windows Speaker Setup I get the following result:
- Dolby Digital (2.0 and 5.1), DTS, Dolby TrueHD, DTS HD, etc. from movies or live TV are working great and correct
- PCM is not working correct! e.g. on Internet Radio channels with RadioTime plugin (AAC or MP3 streams), on TV channels which are using default Stereo Audio (e.g. Comedy Central in Germany) or on both UHD/4K test channels on Astra 19.2. My AVR is getting a 5.1 PCM signal, where the stereo is set to Front Left and Front Right. That means, my AVR is not able to convert the original stereo signal to a 5.1 signal, because the received signal is already 5.1 PCM where the channels for center, sub and surround are empty. Also spoken words are not coming out of the center speaker. They come both from Front Left and Front Right.
- On Websites in Edge or Chrome which offering 5.1 audio in an integrated audio/video player the 5.1 sound is working correct (only on Youtube it is not working, but it seems that it is not working for anyone)

So, if I configure 2.0 (stereo) on Windows Speaker Setup I got the following result:
- DD, DTS, etc. still working great and correct
- Stereo is now sent as PCM 2.0 and so everything is working great. My Yamaha is able to convert it to 5.1. Sounds great and dialogs coming out of center speaker.
- But now 5.1 audio on audio/video players on websites and on video files which directly comes with 5.1 PCM is not working correct anymore it is now also PCM 2.0.

I don't know how to configure everything so that everything is working correct :-(

What should I do?

 

[Stéphane Lenclud]

That's a tough one. It sounds like you can't find an HDMI audio configuration that works consistently with all your use cases.
That's often the case in Windows PC as there is so many audio formats applications can send to your audio out.
You may have more luck when using Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect over an optical connection.
Some motherboard have built-in supports for DTS Connect.
Basically what those technologies are doing is taking whatever audio format is being sent by your applications and reformatting it into a standardize well supported format. That makes the job of your AV receiver a lot easier since it's always receiving the same audio format.

 

[Snoopy87]

Thanks for your replay, but that is not an option for me, because Dolby TrueHD, DTS HD and DTS HD Master Audio can't be sent over optical output.

I think it is correct to setup 5.1 in Windows Speaker Config. The issue seems to be how MediaPortal and/or plugins like RadioTime handles Stereo sound. If it would be sent as PCM 2.0 everything would be ok. While sending bitstreams (DD, DTS, etc.) the Window Speaker Config will be of course ignored, so why not ignoring the Speaker Config while sending PCM 2.0 ? I think it is wrong to send PCM 2.0 as PCM 5.1 signal, because the receiver can't handle the stereo signal anymore.

Maybe it is still possible to set up this - in my opinion default use case for any HTPC user - with existing configuration settings in MediaPortal, LAV Audio Decoder, etc.? (RadioTime doesn't use LAV Audio Decoder)

What I want is, that the Windows Speaker Setup should not matter, because Windows does not have to know my Speaker Setup. It's up to the AV-Receiver to know that. All audio should be sent to the AVR as it is: DD as DD, DTS as DTS, 2.0 as 2.0, 5.1 as 5.1, 7.1 as 7.1 etc.

Maybe there are tools which change the Windows Speaker Setup automatically on demand?

 

[Vasilich]

do you use MP Audio renderer, AC3Filter, or any other filter in filter chain that encodes audio to DD 5.1? Or have you configured your sound card to use DD Live or DTS Connect features?

post MP logs after playing stereo encoded into 5.1 FL and FR.

 

[Snoopy87]

No, everything is set to default. I use LAV Audio Filter and DirectSound renderer, because with MP Audio Renderer audio/video is very asynchron.

 

[Stéphane Lenclud]

I think it is correct to setup 5.1 in Windows Speaker Config.

Definitely.

 

[mm1352000]

The issue seems to be how MediaPortal and/or plugins like RadioTime handles Stereo sound. If it would be sent as PCM 2.0 everything would be ok.

When you set the Windows setting to 5.1, all non-bitstreamed audio will be sent to the AVR as 5.1. That's outside MP's control.

so why not ignoring the Speaker Config while sending PCM 2.0 ?

Because PCM 2.0 is not bit-streamed. It's effectively analog... which can't be bit-streamed.

I think it is wrong to send PCM 2.0 as PCM 5.1 signal, because the receiver can't handle the stereo signal anymore.

...and other people will say it is wrong to convert 2.0 to 5.1.

Maybe it is still possible to set up this - in my opinion default use case for any HTPC user - with existing configuration settings in MediaPortal, LAV Audio Decoder, etc.? (RadioTime doesn't use LAV Audio Decoder)

You could configure LAV audio codec to upmix.
I don't know what RadioTime uses, so I don't know what you can do there.

because with MP Audio Renderer audio/video is very asynchron.

Probably because you've enabled "auto A/V sync correction" in the LAV audio settings. That means that LAV and MPAR are fighting eachother. If you want to use LAV with MPAR, you must ensure that only one of them (usually MPAR) is configured to correct the sync.

 

[Vasilich]

why not ignoring the Speaker Config while sending PCM 2.0 ? I think it is wrong to send PCM 2.0 as PCM 5.1 signal, because the receiver can't handle the stereo signal anymore.

PCM is an unencoded format, so sending PCM 5.1 is comparable with analog connection, where you have 6 audio channels, and stereo uses only 2 of them.

everything is set to default

i really don't like when people write "as default", as defaults tend to change, and everyone can have its own understanding of "default"

 

[Vasilich]

But now 5.1 audio on audio/video players on websites and on video files which directly comes with 5.1 PCM is not working correct anymore it is now also PCM 2.0.

this comes from inability of web players to bitstream audio But do you have ANY video file with uncompressed PCM 5.1 audio???

 

[Snoopy87]

...and other people will say it is wrong to convert 2.0 to 5.1.

Correct! But that has to be configured in the AV Receiver! That's why I want PCM 2.0 to my AVR and not PCM 2.0 integrated in a PCM 5.1 signal.

And of course I don't want to upmix 2.0 to 5.1 on my HTPC, because those software solutions are not as great as the Yamaha DSP (which also uses the YPAO room calibration)

Thanks for the tip with MPAR and LAV Filter! I trill try that!

----

Of course I know that PCM is not bitstream. Sorry if I wrote something wrong.

Most HTPC users have a 5.1 setup. So the big question is how to configure that. The best would be if MediaPortal would send PCM 2.0 as PCM 2.0 and not packaged in a PCM 5.1 stream if Windows Speaker Config is set to 5.1, which is needed to get 5.1 Sound from website players, etc.

Wouldn't it be possible to bypass the Windows Speaker Setup (optionally) ? So that MediaPortal always send 1:1 the audio to the receiver of the signal (in my case the AVR) ? That would be the best and correct way.

I don't know whether I have PCM 5.1 but what about 5.1 audio files? e.g. FLAC, etc.? Those will be sent as PCM to AVR and that's why I need 5.1 set up in the Windows Speaker Config, right? But then stereo is handled wrong. So for now I set 2.0 in Speaker Config for watching TV and listening to Internet Radio, but 5.1 audio files and 5.1 in WebBrowser will not work at the moment.

Btw: With the two Ultra HD channels ("UHD1 by Astra / HD+" and "SES UHD Demo Channel") I only got PCM 2.0 audio. That's why I thought they sent PCM 5.1 to have the highest audio quality (because DD is low quality, and TrueHD and DTS HD are not supported bei sat receivers / stb) or do they send bitstream audio but it is not supported in MediaPortal (TV Server) or by LAV Filter yet?